//------------------------------// // Doom Patrol #2. Stacked Deck. // Story: The Doom Patrol // by Magenta Cat //------------------------------// -Cover concept: A bone hand holding five cards but only three are visible. The one at the top is the queen of hearts, the image in the card shows Appleling. The next one is the jack of diamonds with Sweetie Bot in the place of the jack and the third one has Energyloo replacing the ace of clubs. The cards covered are the king of diamonds and the ten of hearts. Black background. In the upper right a round yellow circle with a small black shadow starting to cover a bit of it's side like in the initial phase of an eclipse. *** -In a lonely place. He was nobody especial. Just your average everyday young age stallion. Everyday he went to work on a desk in the mayor's office. It wasn't any important job either. Just arrange and organize the registers of the town. If the comments from the mayor's assistant were true, a baby dragon could do his job and even better. It wasn't like he liked his job anyway. Every afternoon he went to a cafe to order the exact same dandelion sandwich and after that he went to his apartment to read some book or to watch the television until he fell asleep, ready to start another day all over again. Then he received it, in the morning's mail to the town hall. It was a small package without name nor address. As with every unclassified thing on the place, it ended in his hooves to be put somewhere. Just new garbage for the pony who arranged garbage to organize it. At first he was ready to toss it away in the 'found and lost' pile, but something inside him told him to not do it. He brought the package back home. His curiosity drove him to open the package. Inside the box was a black diamond, shaped in a classic rhomboid form with its borders cut clean. At first he didn't gave it a second thought and just left it on a ledge with some books. Some days later he started to notice how beautiful was the diamond, like it was the one thing he always looked for in his life. He started to pack it as a lucky charm and it gave him the confidence he never had. The first thing he did was to yell to the mayor's assistant, that idiot, and tell him some truths before quitting. The next thing was to take a more lucrative job as security guard in a shop in the new mall at the town's north side, in the night shift. Usually, he would be too afraid of dark to even think of taking such a job but now the darkness wasn't scary anymore. It was welcoming. By the week he was a completely changed pony. He got fit and started to date with mares, hanging out in bars and even fighting from time to time and winning. His life was now his and only his to do whatever he wanted. All thank to the little diamond. Then, one night, they appeared. A stallion and a mare knocked at his door and asked to come in. He identified himself as the owner of the diamond and asked him to give him back. At first he was about to yell him 'hell no' but something inside his mind stopped him from doing so. Instead he calmly drawn the diamond from his saddle and gave it to the mysterious pony who also asked him if the diamond had helped him. He told him his story, how the diamond changed his life and even thanked him for not retrieving it early. The gray pony just laughed for a while before telling him that whatever the diamond did for him, it wasn't free. He received a lot from it and now was time to pay. The idea of saying 'no' never crossed his mind this time. *** FIMFiction (not so) proudly presents: Transformed by Discord the trio know as the Cutie Mark Crusaders were turned into three monster mares, now using their new found powers to help ponies as Equestria's strangest heroes. By their own the're Appleling, Sweetie Bot and Energyloo but together they are... The Doom Patrol in Royal pains (part one). Written by Wave (at least it didn't took another six months) Blaster. Edited by Diamond (working harder than an african ant) Dust. The Doom Patrol created by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney y Bruno Premiani. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic created by Lauren Faust (and others I suppose). The Royal Flush Gang created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. Eclipso created by Bob Haney and Lee Elias Anyone else, look in wikipedia. Copyrights lololol. *** -Canterlot's Cultural Center. They were trapped. Twilight slowly opened her eyes with a terrible headache. After her eyes focused again she managed to see her friends around her, all tied up. She looked down to discover that she was tied up as well, then she saw Iron Will and Spike tied next to them. The six mares, dragon and minotaur were completely defenseless as the Royal flush Gang were emptying the place. "Look at this." Shouted Jack, holding a rocket launcher on his hooves. "I'm sure that this little baby can make a lot of damage well aimed." But Ace simply walked at him and took the launcher with his teeth. He then proceeded to toss it into a bag that was already full with other stolen weapons. "You know the deal Jack." Said King. "They will only pay us if all of the stock is there." Jack frowned as he continued looking for any other pieces he could have missed. Twilight tried to use her magic but instead of glowing with her usual pink energy, her horn only shot some sparks before a sharp pain went through it making her feel a nail in her brain. Looking up, she discovered a metallic cuff around her horn. "No no no, mon prisonnier. That will not happen." Queen approached her. "You're now our hostages till the police, or the guards or whoever who is in charge can offer us something better." The white unicorn let out a laugh that had nothing to envy at Nightmare Moon's one. The purple mare looked around to discover that Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle where also tied together, both unconscious. Next to them was a black silhouette of a pegasus lying on the floor that she assumed was Scootaloo. "We tried to restrain her too." Explained Queen. "But she electrocuted everypony that touched her and when Jack gave a try at tying her with a lasso but she burnt the rope with electricity, so we just let her sleep for now." A white hoof took Twilight's head and directed it to the left. She saw Ten pointing both of her hooves to Scootaloo. "And if she wakes up, our good old Ten will blow her up again." Twilight struggled to get out of the ropes. "I wouldn't try that either. Ten may not talk too much but she's sinfully good with knots. I doubt that even Mister Miracle could get out of those." She turned around, laughing again. Jack and Ace were going from stand to stand retrieving whatever they considered worthy or that King ordered them to take. Meanwhile, consciousness was slowly returning to certain living energy pony. Scootaloo awoke but didn't move immediately, instead she barely opened her left eye to look at Ten. The mare was just pointing at her but didn't noticed that she was awake. 'What do I do? what do I do?' She thought. If they discovered that she was awake then they would open fire again so there was no use, even if she managed to avoid their shots she was still just one and they where five so no fair fight either. Her mind raced as fast as it could trying to come with some kind of awesome plan to save her friends and defeat the bad guys, as this happened with her thoughts she lost any awareness of her physic body. In your regular matter-based pony this would mean nothing but since she was made out of energy, it meant loosing her density which had the curious effect of making her intangible. "Hey, get back here." Ten shouted as Scootaloo disappeared into the floor. When the black and white pegasus started to shot there was no one to receive the bombs. "King! Hey King! She escaped." King turned around from ordering Ace and Jack to look at the empty spot where seconds before was a pony. "Find her! If she goes for help we'll--" But before he could finish his hypothetical phrase a black and purple blur tackled him from below so fast that the only thing the rest of the gang saw was King lying in the ground and a shadow disappearing in the ceiling. Queen galloped to his side but, again, the blur just flew like a bullet and hit Jack in the middle of his body. This time it passed through him provoking a shock wave of purple electricity. "Get cover!" Queen shouted as ten more copies of the Gang appeared in the room. The black blur went from floor to ceiling and back hitting various of the images but never the real ones. After a while, Scootaloo started to grow tired so she stopped outside of the Center, trying to come up with another lifesaving plan. 'Come on, come on. They are just three, but then they're gonna be five if I don't act quick.' Instead of returning through the ceiling, she flew to the side of the place to not attract attention. Poking her head from a corner she could saw Queen and Ten awakening King and Jack as Ace was looking up waiting for her to come back. She thought her options. I could try to release Rainbow. But the time that would took her to untie any of the ponies hostages would be more than enough to give the Gang a very easy black an purple target. She could burn the ropes, she learned how to make a very powerful pulse of energy by concentrating but it has it's own disadvantages. The first one was that it would let her exhaust for a while leaving her defenseless. The second one was that the pulse wasn't selective into what it hit, if it could burn the ropes it could also burn the pony tied in them. 'Except.' She thought. 'Except for my nigh invulnerable robot friend.' As on cue she saw how Sweetie was starting to awake. Taking a moment to aim herself directly to the metallic unicorn, he flew as fast as she could crying out loud. "Incoming!" Before any of the members of the Gang could react to the charging cry, a 'boom' echoed from where they had tied the robot pony. A bright pulse of violet lightning covered her as she awoke for the sheer electricity that hit her. "Yikes!" She jumped to a side. "Scootaloo! Couldn't you give me some warning before doing that?!" Looking down she noticed the energy pegasus lying in the ground, barely moving. "Too tired." She hit her hoof against Sweetie Belle's one. "You're it." Turning around, she spotted the whole gang minus King charging at her. The fastest where Queen and Ten, shooting explosives and razor sharp cards at her. Sweetie Belle's 'skin' was hard enough to take the shots without receiving any real damages, but the attack didn't stopped there. Jack tried to take advantage of the dust lifted by Ten's explosives and fired his laser in the unicorn's direction. "Take that you freak!" He said. "You shot lasers from you eye and call me freak?" A voice behind him asked as a pair of metallic hooves kicked him in the back. Dust should have covered his position from a regular pony. In the mecha-mare's case, her senses where enhanced to the point of making her a living sonar which gave her a full advantage in this scenario. "Rawrr!" Shouted Ace, stomping in the floor and dissipated the remaining dust and spotted his target again. The humongous pony charged like a bull would do at the small filly, this time Sweetie knew that a direct hit from him would meant another knock out so she evaded the assault rolling to her side. When she looked again a full army of Queen's was in front of her. "Set et match, ma petite licorne." Reverberated from multiple spots as twenty or thirty ponies ran to Sweetie Belle. She did her best to dodge and hit everyone on reach but, just like Scootaloo before her, never hit the real one. Ace used the distraction to walk silently to the white robot's back, ready to crush her when on range when one of Queen's copies turned around and tackled him. "If yer not goin' ta play fair, don't play at all." A reddish green flame covered the copy, revealing a dark yellow and crimson changeling in it's place. Standing on her hind legs and punching the air with her front ones but Ace didn't moved at all, instead he just smirked. Apple Bloom felt an itch in the back of her head. Silently as a breeze, Ten dive bombed to the changeling. To her surprise and horror, Apple Bloom turned just in time to avoid her which resulted in the pegasus hitting the floor with a loud 'THUMP'. Quick as a lightning, the young pony went airborne as Jack jumped to his flying card to chase after her, shooting his laser eye but missing every time. Ace got on his hooves again, rage visibly on his expression, and charged one more time to Sweetie Belle who finally found the real Queen as she was defending herself with her steel cards. He never saw the black silhouette cutting his charge and even lifting his heavy body to the ceiling where it dropped the stallion who broke the floor and ended in the building's new ceiling. "I'm back..." The living energy pegasus sang. "Hey, need some help here." Scootaloo saw how Apple Bloom and Jack where engaged on a chase and shoot fight. She flew after Jack but he turned his card around to face her, electrical sticks ready to hit her but instead she aimed a little lower. Taking the flying card with her hooves and sinning it upside down she made the earth pony over it fell to the ground but Ten stopped the fall with her own card and now the two of them where shooting lasers and explosives at Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. Meanwhile, back at the ground, Sweetie Belle was still trying to hit the real Queen as one of Ten's explosives brought down her two companions over her. At the same time, Ace recovered and, uncharacteristically for a pony of his size, jumped over the air to land right over the three fillies, using his hooves to press them against the floor. "C'en est fini de vous." With a simple move of her horn, Queen vanished her copies and walked to them. "You have done well but we're stronger. There's no use trying to fight a lost battle." "Yeah, what she said, dummies." Added Jack, lading from Ten's card. What happened next was so amazing that not even the security cameras on the place could properly register it. First, Sweetie Belle somehow lifted Ace over her head and tossed him away, freeing her friends to move. Scootaloo reacted next, flying at speeds that only her rainbow mentor could top, hitting Jack and Ten with a gazillion of volts tackle that sent the unprepared pegasus and earth pony to dreamland. Queen was already exhausted to make her illusions again, so instead, she assaulted the girls with her knife cards but Apple Bloom was faster. Taking the form of a cat, she jumped from side to side, evading the cuts, and landed perfectly on front of the unicorn mare to go back to her changeling form and hitting her in the jaw. Finally, Ace managed to go back to his hooves and charged at them but Sweetie Belle shouted first. "SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The sonic waves were too much for the bulky stallion to handle. He barely managed to press his hooves against his ears but that didn't stopped the sound waves from sending him hard against the wall behind him. When the four members of the Royal Flush Gang were finally out of service Scootaloo said. "We're good or what!" The three of them then walked triumphantly to King as Apple Bloom spoke. "Just give up, we don't want to fight anymore." "You foals think you can order the King to do against his will?" The tall pony said. "Mine's is the authority given by lineage and might for I am the King of Spades and I will no yield." Eyes glowing in red. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." Scootaloo replied not giving too much of a though for the criminal's speech. "If you're not gonna step away we will-- Ugh!" A pink ray of magical energy hit her from behind. Her friends looked back and what they saw could only be described as bad. With the same glowing red eyes as King, Twilight walked slowly to them, horn smoking. Behind her the other Elements, Spike and Iron Will had also the same slow movement and the glowing eyes. King allowed himself to smirk as he spoke again. "You simple minded foals, you never guessed why I didn't wielded my rage against you when you ungracefully assaulted my royal curt?" His mouth turned into a terrifying grin. "Mine is not only the authority of a rich lineage but also the minds of the minor creatures bow to my will. The will of the King." Iron Will snored and charged at them shouting in rage, the rest of them did the same.